Blue, and other drabbles
by PrettyArbitrary
Summary: The salvage of my attempt to complete a 30 word prompt.  Warning:  contains Cloud.  But hey, there's some Zack in there too, so all's good, yeah?
1. Blue

A/N: These drabbles are the remnant of my attempt to complete a 30 word prompt list for FFVII. I probably won't be adding any more, but you never know. I might get bitten by the bug again sometime. They were fun to try, anyway! Each drabble was exactly 100 words in MS Word. I have no clue how counts, but it sure doesn't doesn't do it like real people.

Is anyone actually confused as to whether FFVII belongs to me? No? I thought not.

* * *

**Blue **

Zack leans on the rail of the cargo ship, watching the wild ocean toss in the sunlight.

They've sure come a long way. Out here in the middle of nowhere, he can feel the miles spool out behind him. Out here, with glittering blue water beneath them and shining blue sky above, he can imagine that nothing exists except for their tiny bubble of life. It feels good. Safe where nobody can reach them, Zack feels freer than he ever has in his life. No attachments. No obligations. Just him and Cloud and a world made of gleaming blue horizon.


	2. Broken I

**Broken**

Cloud knows what people say, but he sure doesn't feel broken, or much like a fragile doll. He feels, in fact, like he could pancake a car with his fists. He's fought regiments with nothing but his sword—no, wait, that was Zack. But he's taken on Sephiroth, which was worse! The point is, he doesn't need protecting. No matter how big his eyes are or how delicate his complexion (he's going to look like this for the rest of his life arrgh), he can break any external threat. And no one can protect him from the internal ones anyway. 


	3. Broken II

**Broken II**

Cloud's at a bar, and his friends are goggling at him.

"Genesis was a bastard," he's saying. "Not evil, probably, just obnoxious. Every time I was with Sephiroth when he showed up, he'd quote that stupid play. And not even well! It sounded like Reno reading storybooks to Marlene. He was crazy, too. Genesis, not Reno. Well. Reno too. But Genesis was crazy because—get this—he wanted Seph's DNA to stop himself from decomposing. I don't know if it's crazier to think you could _make_ Seph do anything, or to want his DNA..."

Cloud hates drinking. Goddamn Barrett.


	4. Blood

**Blood **

Cloud can smell it on his face; he's wearing Zack's blood like war paint. The memory replays of his nose buried in bullet holes and mangled flesh an inch from his eyes. Close-up of a human body turned to meat. Feeling Zack's blood stick and come away with him when he rises. It shouldn't! It belongs in Zack! The mud they sat in seemed more blood than dirt, the rotting metallic scent rising from his trousers too. Zack's body lies on the cliff where he fell, but Cloud thinks he's wearing much of it. Wearing Zack like a second skin. 


	5. Funeral

**Funeral **

Zack never gets a burial or a service, but much later, when Cloud finally remembers, he does get a eulogy. Standing alone on the bluff where his friend bled out his life, Cloud touches the unmarked earth where he died and marvels that a man who lived as loudly as Zack did could leave so little trace of his passing. The notion is unbearable, and so when Cloud leaves, he leaves the mark of Zack's passing driven point-first into the cliff behind him. And after that, he leaves behind the mark of Zack's passing in his footsteps and every choice. 


	6. Gloves

**Gloves **

Sometimes Cloud thinks he still feels someone else beneath his skin. Some days, the memory of being piloted haunts him, and the spectral sense of his hands moving to fulfill another's purpose won't abate. On days like that, watching the tendons of his fingers flex, he can imagine they belong to someone else. An action as simple as grasping a sword conjures the lingering echo of another's grip wrapping around the hilt...or around someone's neck. His friends can tease him all they like about the hefty armgear, but he wears that leather and metal to armor his sense of self. 


	7. I'm Here

**I'm here **

Since the events that recreated him as he now is, Cloud has never been alone, even in his own skin. Between Jenova, Sephiroth, Zack, the Lifestream's tangled whispers, he fears his existence owes more to them than him. He doubts where he fits, whether his soul has room left for him, or if he'd recognize the real Cloud on meeting him.

When Tifa shows him the truth in the Lifestream, Cloud understands finally that he was only ever real in one moment. When he died killing Sephiroth, for his family, friends and everything he loved, that's where Cloud is.


End file.
